When Daniel Ek is not busy running Spotify or building his new technological health business, he makes huge bets for the future of European war, seemingly.
The billionaire, who lives mainly in Stockholm, led just 600 million euros to Helsing, a 4 -year -old Munich -based defense technology company, which is now valued 12 billion eurosAs first mentioned by the Financial Times and confirmed separately by TechCrunch. The deal makes it one of Europe’s most valuable private companies. It also highlights Europe’s struggle to build its own military muscle, as people grow up and the US are turning inward.
Numbers help in history. Helsing raised $ 450 million just shy a year ago. Now it’s back with this even bigger round led by EK Prima Materia’s investment company. It is part of a wider explosion of defense technology that sees money flooding in companies such as the US Giant Anduril, which has just brought $ 2.5 billion led by the Fund of Fund and European Constructions of Quantum Systems and Tekever. (In recent weeks, they announced 160 million euros and 70 million eurosCorrespondingly, in rounds that put both of them in unicorn territory.)
Helsing refused to share further details on how it plans to use the new funding.
As for what, exactly, Helsing is doing, Wired said last year to think of it as turning modern war to something that more like a one video gameexcept for very real consequences.
The company’s main product receives huge amounts of data from military sensors, radars and weapon systems, then uses AI to create real -time intuitive illustrations for what’s going on on the battlefield. Instead of soldiers who make life or death decisions based on telephone calls and hand maps, they all see the same information, either from a front -line ditch or from a command center away.
But what started as a AI software company has become much more ambitious. Helsing is now building its own aircraft and aircraft and said it is working on a fleet of unmanned mini underwater to improve naval surveillance.
Time is not coincidental. As US investor Eric Slesinger told Techcrunch this spring, “European governments have been waiting for a long time to reconsider what their own security meant.” The wake -up call came with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which made it clear that Europe could not rely on US protection only. US elections at the end of the last year of President Donald Trump – who is very interested in promoting American interests – Since then it has put a much thinner point on things.
Now European leaders are talking about spending great defense while achieving strategic autonomy, which means that their ability to handle their own security. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitotokis recently summarized the movement in a separate interview with TechCrunch: “We will spend a lot of money for defense as Europe.
A few years ago, this awareness was the impetus for the NATO innovation fund, the first multilevel business fund in the world supported by 24 NATO allies. But the capital is just one of the many signs that Europe has seriously increased to build its own defense technology ecosystem rather than based on the US for protection.
Ek, who first invested in Helsing back in 2021Before the outbreak of the Ukrainian war, he has probably seen for a while where things are directed. As he said in a press release on Monday’s funding: “As Europe quickly strengthens its defense capabilities in response to evolving geopolitical challenges, there is an urgent need for investment in advanced technologies that ensure its strategic autonomy.”
Other investors in the new round of Helsing include previous supporters Lightspeed Ventures, Accel, Plural, General Catalyst and Saab and new BDT & MSD Partners. The company has now increased € 1.37 billion.
